


a good friend

by youcouldmakealife



Series: between the teeth [37]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-21
Updated: 2016-04-21
Packaged: 2018-06-03 16:24:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6617722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcouldmakealife/pseuds/youcouldmakealife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Washington wants him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a good friend

Washington wants him.

“Is that really a surprise?” Dave asks, when he tells David.

“Well, they have to sacrifice—” David starts.

“Not a surprise, kid,” Dave interrupts. “They practically pissed their pants when I talked to them.”

“That’s crude,” David says.

“Doesn’t make it any less true,” Dave says. “You’re a year past the Art Ross and the only thing they’re missing for a Cup run is a destructive top line. Getting you and Kurmazov is a dream come true. You know Kurmazov was going there when you talked to me?”

“Yeah,” David says. 

“Loyalty,” Dave says. “Can’t say you lack that.”

As David expected, Washington’s ability to slightly frontload their offer makes it difficult for the Islanders to match it. They have the necessary funds, since they no longer have Oleg’s salary to be concerned about, but they’d have to pay David what he was worth, which they’ve been reluctant to do, and they wouldn’t have a lot of cap room thanks to the fact that their deadline trades, without exception, were players with inflated salaries that the Islanders had taken on with the hope that it’d take them to the playoffs. Obviously the gamble didn’t pan out, and now their hands are tied.

David wishes he could just stay out of it, wait for Dave and Washington and New York to sort it out among themselves, but he understands why that isn’t possible. Still, it’s one of the hardest things he’s ever done to sit across a table from Islanders management, look them in the eye, and tell them that he doesn’t want to play for their organization. That if they match the Capitals offer he’ll play for them, and he won’t play any less well, but he’ll resent it every step of the way, and the moment he’s able, he will leave. 

Understandably, they don’t take the news all that well. David feels shaky, sick, afterward, and then worse when the news breaks that David’s going to the Capitals. The reaction is what he expected; outrage among the Islanders media and fanbase, bile and falsehoods and outright loathing.

“I told you not to read that shit,” Dave says when he sees David next. Apparently he can tell that David has been just by looking at his face, or maybe it’s just an educated guess. He’s right, though. He has told David that, has been telling David that since he was seventeen years old and shaking, because after Canada won Gold there was more than one comment wishing he would die.

“They hate me,” David says.

“Yeah, well,” Dave says. “You’re not playing for them, so who gives a shit?”

“Dave,” David says.

“You’re doing the right thing,” Dave says. “And you don’t owe them shit, you’ve given them enough.”

“Okay,” David says. “Yeah.”

Training’s a good distraction. David was a little concerned that Vladislav would be angry that David and Oleg were leaving, that he wouldn’t want to train David now that he’s no longer an Islander, but Vladislav just said “I want my name on the Cup when the Capitals win this year,” and laughed when Kiro squawked and said it was going to Pittsburgh again, obviously.

Kiro had gone a little quiet after that, and David understood, since he was a pending UFA. David hadn’t asked about his status with Pittsburgh, because he didn’t want to bring up something Kiro didn’t want to talk about. “Maybe I will be a Capital too,” Kiro says, later that day. “Triplets.”

It’s not realistic — Washington has almost as much depth as Pittsburgh does, especially on the wing, and with the limited remaining cap space they have, they’re going to be angling to improve their defence, which is solid but could be improved. David doesn’t say that. He doesn’t think Kiro was being serious, and it’s a nice thought. 

David wasn’t expecting Pittsburgh to re-sign Kiro. They’d renewed him for a year last season, and they have some really strong prospects, so David thinks that contract was about giving those prospects one more year to mature before they called them up. Kiro isn’t expecting to be re-signed either, he’s clear about that as July creeps closer and closer, and he takes it with a bit of a shrug, but David knows that Kiro liked the Penguins — Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre. He also knows that Emily just got a job at the University of Pittsburgh, and Kiro seems more worried about that than the fact he doesn’t know where he’ll be living come September.

David’s confident, at least, that Kiro will stay in the NHL. He’s been playing well enough that he might even break top-six on a team that doesn’t have much money to throw around, needs a cheap second liner and to stay above the cap floor. He may not have always been able to break into the Penguins lineup, but the Penguins have been the consensus top team in the league the entire time Kiro’s been playing there. He would have had an easier time on twenty-nine other teams, and now he’s got the chance.

Vladislav always makes sure Canada Day is an off-day, which David appreciates but doesn’t need, but it’s also Free-Agent Frenzy, and Kiro, does, in fact, need the day off. He’s been tight lipped about whether anyone’s approached him, probably because he’s not technically allowed to make any sort of deal until the day of, but David’s still a little upset that he thinks that David isn’t trustworthy enough to tell. 

“Good luck tomorrow,” David tells Kiro on June 30th, after Vladislav’s kicked them out with ‘See you Thursday, Capitals and…whatever you will be,’ which made Kiro laugh. “I hope you go somewhere you want to go.”

Kiro looks at him a little weirdly, and David frowns, self-conscious.

“You are a good friend,” Kiro says, pulling him into a hug, and David spends the ride home still frowning, confused and — he doesn’t think he’s a very good friend, actually, and he doesn’t know why Kiro said it, especially today.

It might have something to do with the call David gets the next morning, but David isn’t sure.

“Happy Canada Day!” Kiro says when David answers. “And New Team For Kiro Day!”

“You get an offer?” David says. 

“Two I am thinking of,” Kiro says. “But I ask you first.”

“Okay,” David says. He’s not sure why — David asked Oleg because it’d affect Oleg. Maybe Kiro wants a second opinion, but someone like his agent or his girlfriend would be better for that, David thinks.

“North Stars, 2 year, 1.5 million,” Kiro says.

“I hope the other deal is better,” David says. He thinks Kiro should be making at least 900,000, and Minnesota is well stocked with left-wingers, so he’d be third line at best. He’d be changing conferences too. David doesn’t know if he wants to, but he wouldn’t think so, especially if Emily’s staying in Pittsburgh.

“3 year, 3 million,” Kiro says. 

“Take that one,” David says. “Unless it’s somewhere you don’t really want to go, I don’t see—”

“It is the Panthers,” Kiro interrupts.

“Oh,” David says.

“Right,” Kiro says. “So I call you.”

“You’d be second line,” David says.

“Possibly,” Kiro says.

“It’s a year longer and almost a million more,” David says. “I don’t know why you’re asking me, it’s an easy choice.”

“David,” Kiro says. “I am asking.”

“You can’t not take a good deal just because my—” David starts. “You should take it,” he finishes.

“Okay,” Kiro says. “Thank you.”

“I don’t know what you’re thanking me for,” David says.

“Yes you do,” Kiro says, infuriatingly. “So thank you.”

“I’m not saying you’re welcome,” David mumbles.

“Does it hurt?” Kiro asks. “Not to say?”

“Shut up,” David says. “It’s a good deal. I’m happy for you.”

“I will get a bitchin’ tan,” Kiro says. 

David wrinkles his nose. “Because that’s the most important thing,” he says.

“It is,” Kiro says. “Obviously. I have to talk to Panthers now, sign my name a lot, but I will see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” David says. “Tomorrow. When you—”

“When I what?” Kiro asks.

“When you go, could you not—” David says.

“I am not going to talk to Lourdes about you,” Kiro says. “If that is what you are worried about.”

David thinks about running into Forster in the bowels of BB&T Arena, the way Forster brought up something long finished, something David would have thought long forgotten. How one of his first thoughts was Kiro doing the same. “I wasn’t worried,” he says, and is surprised to realise that’s true.

*

“Jake texted me yesterday,” Kiro says, before they start training the next morning. David flinches, notices Oleg looking over, sharp.

“Oh,” David says. It’s — obviously Jake is texting, he’s practically addicted to his phone, he’s just not texting David. David knew that, of course, but it’s one thing to know and another thing to hear it. And he wasn’t worried about Kiro talking about him to Jake, but maybe he should ask Kiro not to talk about Jake to him, because the way his stomach drops is unpleasant. It seems like a petty thing to ask for, though, when he thinks about it. A little pathetic. “What’d he say?”

“Hi, it’s Jake, welcome to the Panthers,” Kiro says. “He a smiley guy?”

“What do you mean?” David asks. Not that it matters, because no matter what, the answer is probably ‘yes’.

“Send text, smilies, emoticons?” Kiro asks.

“I wouldn’t kn—” David starts, and then, because it’s just Oleg and Kiro, and Kiro’s starting to raise an eyebrow at him. “Yes.”

“I think he hates me,” Kiro says. He doesn’t sound bothered by it. “No smilies for me.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t,” David says. “He doesn’t hate anyone.” Jake admitted to being rude to Kiro when they met, but that’s because he thought David and Kiro were — intimate friends, or whatever, and that was a long time ago, when Jake wasn’t over him. “It’s probably just because he doesn’t know you very well.”

Oleg snorts.

“What?” David asks.

“I am not involved in this,” Oleg says, putting his hands up. 

Vladislav barks something, and David can’t understand Russian, but he’s pretty sure it’s some form of ‘hurry up’, and Oleg peels off.

Kiro snickers. “What?” David asks.

“We are in trouble because we were gossiping about _boys_ ,” Kiro says.

“We weren’t gossiping,” David says. “He’s your captain now,” he adds, and when Kiro keeps laughing, “Shut up.”

“Volkov, Chapman, I am getting old waiting for you,” Vladislav snaps.

“You are already old,” Kiro says fearlessly. David’s always a little in awe of the things Kiro says to Vladislav, the way Vladislav snaps at him after but, David’s learned from time, not with real anger. David wonders what it’d be like, to say what he likes without worrying about it. He thinks it’d be nice.

“Chapman, smack Volkov for me,” Vladislav says.

“Slava,” Kiro cries, while David says, “I’m not going to hit Kiro.”

“Good friend,” Kiro says, patting David on the head patronisingly, and David changes his mind, smacks Kiro lightly in the arm.

“Good work, David,” Vladislav says. “I will not make you run the extra laps with Kirill.”

“Everyone is _mean_ ,” Kiro says, but he’s grinning as he says it. “My captain, my trainer, my Davidson, all hate me.”

“Jake doesn’t hate you,” David protests. Vladislav and himself go without saying. 

Kiro pats him on the head again, possibly even more patronising.

“I might hate you,” David scowls.

“I love you too,” Kiro says, and starts laughing again when David goes red.

They don’t end up training in earnest until a half hour after they should have started. Vladislav’s scowling, and usually David would be too, but this time, he doesn’t really mind.


End file.
